Perform, not protest

JUST a day after the Prime Minister sought to impress upon the nation his government’s high-minded commitment  to vikasvad — in sharp contrast to what he called was his rivals’ virodhvad —the ruling BJP chose to stage a noisy demonstration outside Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s residence. The provocation for the protest was a purported statement by a Congress leader, Digvijay Singh, reiterating his doubt about the authenticity of the Batla House encounter in 2008. There was nothing ‘fake’ about the Batla House encounter. Experts till this day remain divided whether the Delhi Police had gone about its task in an optimal way. The Batla House episode is now being revisited because a propaganda film, allegedly by the ISIS, has one of the ‘actors’ claiming to have made his escape from the Batla House. That alleged ISIS video was seized upon by the ultra-nationalistic television anchors to crank up anti-Islam phobia in the garb of attacking ‘terror.’   

Maybe the Monday morning event was staged with the sole intention of providing some footage for the consumption of television news channels, but this does raise a question as to whether the Modi regime remains a prisoner of convoluted priorities. Could it be that the Prime Minister and his party have not come to terms that the electorate has in fact voted Mr Modi to power and that it was now incumbent upon him and his ministerial colleagues to begin the difficult task of governing this difficult country. Neither its penchant for always wanting to stage a son et lumiere nor its itch for a constant confrontation with its rivals enhances the government’s reputation for governance. 

The Modi government’s record on the terror front — what with well-advertised pathetic shows at Dinanagar and Pathankot — hardly matches its promise of a muscular answer to terror. Arguably the country needs to remain constantly alert against ‘terror’ but this vigil cannot possibly yield results if it ends up deepening Hindu-Muslim fault-lines. Nor can this vigil be mounted on the streets. In fact, this regurgitating of the Batla House invites a suspicion about the ruling party’s seriousness in tackling terror. Is it one more stratagem in the run-up to the coming electoral battle in Uttar Pradesh?